The Rose Treatment
by Whip the Rabbit
Summary: When Amy's closest friends decide that her obsession with Sonic is /maaaaybe/ getting out of hand, the rosy hedgehog suddenly finds herself having to finally deal with the chaotic emotions surrounding the eponymous blue hero. Luckily, she has the support of her new friend, Romani! ...The Psychologist.
1. Chapter 0 -- Help Needed

"Cr-Creeam!" She whined.

"Please Amy?" The young girl begged, lightly pulling at the hem of her scarlet dress. "I really do think this is for the best! Please trust me!"

"B-but…" The pink hedgehog stammered.

"My mother believes it would help you too." Cream asserted politely. Her chao doted her from behind, rubbing against her as a reminder and glancing up at Amy with the sweetest, cutest expression she'd ever seen from a chao. "Cheese thinks so too, Right Cheese?"

Even if his bright blue eyes hadn't won her over, the short, unintelligible confirmation Cheese gave to his owner and best friend was more than enough for her breath to catch. Maybe she could have weaseled away from just Cream if she'd mentally debated whether it was right to do or not, but not both of them. Not Cream _and _Cheese, both beaming her with their bright, caring expressions and making her feel both guilty for having wanted to leave in the first place, and slightly uncomfortable. The little girl may have been her best friend, but she was very devious, in her own, cute and polite way.

"I… Alright." Amy finally relented, releasing with her breath, the will to fight any more.

"Promise?" Cream wondered. Amy would have simply restated her answer, which, to her defense, was at this moment, completely honest, but after her behavior before, she already knew that it wasn't enough. There were very few things that Amy Rose regretted in her life: Strawberry-Chocolate Bonbons, inventing Boxercising, and lying to Cream. _Especially_ lying to Cream. And yet, whenever the temptation came… whenever _that_ was a choice, an option, even a sliver of a hope that she could possibly dream of realizing, she acted. Even when Cream made her promise, made her swear up and down that she wouldn't, she simply couldn't help herself and did it anyways.

Her eyes wandered briefly to the solid oak door that towered a good five feet higher than she stood tall, watching the letters emblazoned along the top in a copper tint that seemed to glare back at her dauntingly, as though threatening to torment her if she so much as thought of continuing on through it. Yet, even as she stood, even as she felt the urge begin to creep through her legs and trail its way slowly towards her heart and mind, she heard a short, quiet murmur that she didn't quite recognize as her own voice.

"_Maybe… I need this._"

Amy glanced back down towards the young rabbit and smiled, offering her pinky as a peace offering. It was the one link that kept her credibility, that pinky. Some days, she felt that all of the trust that she had left in her friend was stored there, and no matter how hard she wanted to, she would not let that last smidgeon go. Cream quickly tied her own pinky with Amy's and giggled thankfully, tossing herself around Amy in a short hug before stepping away and curtseying to her respectfully.

"Thank you Amy. Thank you very much. I promise, she will help you."

Amy stood upright and stared the threatening name on the door down again, feeling a drain on her earlier confidence. Still, she'd just bound her life to that pinky promise. There was no going back on her word now, she realized.

"If you say so, Cream." She mumbled. The young rabbit took another gentle bow and, assuring her chao did the same, skipped away down the long hall and nearly out of sight. She turned around and gave the hedgehog one last wave before disappearing completely, and before leaving Amy there, alone, in the one place she couldn't feel any less secure about staying.

"_Come on Amy Rose, you can do this_." Her chest inflated with a deep, ensuring breath, and she released it as slowly as is came. It was just a name. Just a person. Just somebody that she had to encounter, to make Cream happy, and then simply move on with her life. That was all. The bothersome tag that studded the door couldn't, and didn't, even have the power to hope to stop her. Nothing did. She was strong. She was powerful. She was better than this, and she was going to barge through that doorway and take whatever life planned on throwing at her head on, name and title be-darned!

_Romani S. Docks, Ph.D._


	2. Chapter 1 -- Building Blocks

"Amy Rose."

Her first impression of the room wasn't very impressive. There was a nice, homely feeling to all of the furnishings, a deep, healthy brown kind of wood seemed to make up most of the desks and chairs, and there were small, potted flowers that she could recognize by name dotting the many flat surfaces. Behind the largest desk, there was a large, flat window that took up the majority of the wall, overlooking the incredible view that the fourth-story room had to offer of the clear, bright blue sky as it rained its shining light down upon the rest of Central City.

And yet, she felt a distinct lack of pink stopped the otherwise gorgeous room from doing anything for her.

Still, she responded to her name and switched her attention to the doctor, whom stood by one of her potted plants. She had apparently been watering it, for she set down a small pail and instead retrieved a clipboard, and a pencil from behind her ear. Even by human standards, she didn't seem to stand out to the young hedgehog, her hair tied in a bun and her outfit, dreadfully dull, but professionally friendly, at least. As she made her way towards the large table by the window and sat in a simple-looking chair, she motioned for Amy to take a seat as well.

"My… a very big name to meet." Romani complimented, her clipboard resting in her lap as she smiled softly to the hedgehog.

"It's not, really. I'm just a simple city girl." Amy replied casually, waving down the subtle praise. In truth, she never expected anybody to pay her any mind when there were so many bigger heroes out there in the world. All she had ever done was follow others around and happen to get involved in whatever _they_ were planning. Yet, the recognition she sometimes received was… nice.

"Well, even so. Meeting someone like you is very exciting, I promise you." She laughed, picking up the clipboard and holding it closely to her chest. The doctor extended her hand down to Amy to shake. "My name, though not as big, is Romani Docks, and I will be your Psychologist for today. Please feel free to call me either Romani or Ms. Docks."

"It's nice to meet you, Romani." Amy greeted pleasantly, taking her hand in earnest. Romani's grip seemed tiny and enveloped itself in her larger grip, but the woman seemed unaffected by the discrepancy and simply adjusted the papers in her hands, scanning across them before she spoke again.

"For records' sake, I'm going to ask a simple few questions, is that alright?"

"That's fine." She replied.

"Thank you. Your full name would be Amy Rose. Correct? No middle name?"

"No ma'am." She answered.

"And Amy isn't short for, say, Amelia, or anything?" Romani questioned, scribbling down on her board.

"No ma'am. Just, Amy Rose."

"Alright… Female, right?"

"Uhm!" Amy scoffed, taken aback by the sincerity of the psychologist's question.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I have to… I mean, It's protocol not to assume." She explained rapidly, her cheeks brightening as she nodded apologetically. "Mobians tend to have varying… It's not as obvious for…"

"That's fine, I understand!" Amy waved off. She wasn't sure what exactly about her made the gender aspect so ambiguous, but then, considering where she currently sat, she could only imagine the kinds of patients that would make such a rule necessary in the first place. Romani's reddened cheeks almost seemed to try to hide behind the clipboard as she continued.

"So… Species is Hedgehog?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And… twelve years old?"

"Turning thirteen this fall." She asserted carefully. She was tired of being told that '_twelve and three quarters isn't a real age_' and instead asked Madam Vanilla if there was a more intellectual way of saying it. She really wanted to be thirteen and wasn't very happy with how slowly time seemed to move.

"I see…" Romani's pen continued to scratch against the paper, reaching a point, begging a question, and then continuing. When she reached the next section, she took a short, unexpected-and-yet-hardly-noticeable pause.

"Marital status?"

"In a relationship."

As this, Amy's psychologist stopped the scribbling altogether. The sudden change in pace forced the hedgehog's ears to perk in place, noticing the human's expression shift just slightly. Her pen picked up again as though the pause hadn't happened, though Amy only felt even more curious as a result.

"A relationship, you say?" The brunette woman considered. "For a heroine like you? He sounds pretty special."

"Oh, he _is_!" There is was. The familiar rush of energy and memories and simple happiness. It rode across her mind like a simplifying wave, happy, calming, and yet exciting all at the same time. As soon as the thoughts of him triggered, she felt as though nothing else mattered but those thoughts as they wiped away all the worries and bad feelings she might have had before. "He's the most amazing, thoughtful, dreamy boyfriend in the world! He's kind and sweet and caring and strong and _really really_ fast and-!"

"What's his name?" She interrupted, though Amy neither found it rude nor could she bring herself to care, now overcome with the warm, loving thoughts as they flooded all around her and filled her every cell with absolute joy. Her voice dreamily relayed from the far reaches of her conscious mind, nearly losing itself in her now-entranced mindset as she responded to the psychologist.

"Sonic! Sonic the hedgehog!"

"Sonic, you say?"

"Yeah! He's the coolest man I've ever met! He's got such beautiful green eyes and his quills are such a deep, deep blue! And everything about him is just perfect and wonderful and-!"

The scratching of Romani's pen finally drew her attention back to the real world. The psychologist seemed to intently write things down, reasonably at first, but then her writing continued for a just long enough time that Amy began to feel excluded from the thoughts. Though she tried to keep her patience under a lid, eventually, she began to tap her boot, and then cross her arms, until finally, curiosity overcame her.

"What are you writing?" She asked, trying to keep her slight aggravation away from her tone. Romani finally glanced up at Amy from her notes, her pen mystically still writing even without her attention, and then looked back down at the clipboard again intently.

"A story." Romani answered. "I like writing stories. I can submerge myself in them and not have to pay attention to real life things that bother me. It's the easy way out, you see."

"Huh?" The hedgehog's brow furrowed slightly. Romani almost seemed to be… mocking her somehow, down to mimicking the gentle tapping that Amy had taken to doing with her foot and the general posture. Romani glanced up again at Amy once again, and once again as well, her eyes drooped back down into the pad.

"You know, hiding from my problems. Making things up. 'S a lot easier than facing reality." Now Amy was positive; Romani was definitely mocking her! The pen noticeably spun in the same spot over and over again and the human sunk further into her chair to match Amy's short posture, with a debatably ridiculous result. She didn't want to become upset with the psychologist that had seemed so kind a moment ago, but the hedgehog also couldn't help but feel deeply insulted by the implications Romani seemed to be making. Had it been Knuckles, there would have been 500 psi. of hammer upside her head already, with promise of more to come.

After a third glance, however, Romani abruptly sat up straight in her seat and seemed to actually write something down before catching Amy's eyes for a final time, no traces of malicious mimicry within them at all.

"Amy… do you know why you're here?" She inquired cautiously, watching Amy closely as though she were an unsure figment of her mind.

"I'm here because Cream signed me up for it." Amy responded with exasperation. The memory of her friend having convinced her to visit a psychologist not too long ago was still fresh in her mind. Poor Cream probably didn't deserve to feel such pain, but then, how else was Amy supposed to respond? Cream had basically called her a psychopath and asked her to visit a shrink! It was an easy mistake to make, one that she had no control over! Anyone with access to a massive hammer would have done the same, Amy was positive. And it wasn't like she didn't go and buy Cream ice cream afterwards as an apology.

"Yes, Cream. Sweet little girl. Takes after her mother so much." Romani contemplated sweetly, interesting Amy with her past relationship with Vanilla. "Her mother was an ex-coworker of mine, a year or so ago."

That at least explained why both Cream and Madam Vanilla were so excited for this psychologist in particular. From the sound of it, she seemed to be a family friend of some sort, one whom had regular contact with Vanilla at the least. Amy was not very surprised to learn of the elder rabbit's past career, and indeed felt it was a pretty safe match, considering the woman's passive, helpful nature. She wondered what kind of psychosis the mother must have thought she had, suddenly, to want to send her to a doctor to be treated. The thought was rather worrying.

"The reason your friend asked you to come to me today is because she's worried about you." Romani explained carefully. "She's concerned about… your relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog. She thinks that your… care for him may be becoming unhealthy-"

"Cream would never say that!" Amy snapped defensively, hopping out of her seat angrily. Her voiced suddenly felt enraged, but she didn't care. "And my relationship with Sonic is perfectly healthy! We're the healthiest couple of all time!"

Romani set her clipboard down and held her gaze against Amy's rampage. Her eyes were neither challenging nor scared, but rather, analytical, with just a hint of concern. She was watching Amy's rage-contorted face in the opposite way that most people did, namely by not running and cowering in fear. Even without the clipboard, she appeared to be making notes, mental notes, and waiting for a further response. When she got none, her eyes softened and went back down to her clipboard.

"Amy, don't you think this has gotten out of hand?" She asked the hedgehog genuinely. Amy felt another surge of anger course through her, but… something about Romani's tone kept her from flipping out again. She was simply being asked a question, whether or not it was one Amy liked. Taking enough time to regain her composure, Amy sat down again, this time crossing her legs as she uncomfortably considered the question.

"I don't think anything's out of hand." She grumpily replied. "Sonic and I are happy and there's nothing unhealthy about it."

"_Is_ Sonic happy?"

Amy was seriously becoming less and less happy with this psychologist with each passing question. If there was something she was even more sick about than her age, it was people telling her that she was 'crazy', and that Sonic 'would never love her'. What didn't people get about their relationship? Of course Sonic never took her out on dates unless she asked him. He was a world-class hero, constantly struggling to keep the world safe from harm! It was unwarranted, nice though it'd be, for him to come to her and take her somewhere special, or to give her a hug and a kiss like other boyfriends do, or to even shake her hand in a friendly manner…

No. She didn't want those thoughts to come back. She _hated_ those thoughts. Sonic _was_ happy with her. That's it. There was nothing else to consider. He was busy and in love with her, but work came before pleasure. Period. Though, even as she told this to Romani defiantly, neither the psychologist nor the hedgehog herself felt entirely sold by the idea.

"Okay, fine. Let's humor the idea that Sonic is happy with you, but too busy to give you the time of day." Romani began, her words stirring unsettling feelings inside Amy that she resented the doctor for stirring. "What about _you_? Can you honestly say that you're satisfied by the way Sonic treats _you_?"

"And before you respond, please," She interrupted her counterattack quickly. "Just, think about it for a moment. Take time before you respond."

The pink hedgehog would have preferred not to think about it. As prompted, however, her mind slowly began to leak the short moments between the two of them in her head. She went over every thought, and her mind passed over each expression and the memories of his tones and his motions and…

The trend upset her. Her most common memory… was of his back. His spiny, sharp blue going-hundreds-of-miles-above-the-speed-limit-fast back. His face was incredibly less common for her, and a smile, a genuine smile directed unflinchingly towards her was… nonexistent.

Sonic had never smiled for her, she realized. There were nervous grins, sure, and even a smile that she'd thought was genuine, before he suddenly took off running afterwards. But she had been chasing him for several years now, desperately pining in hopes that he would one day turn his back away from her, and face her, and maybe even compliment her or something, but it had never come.

And there came the thought that had haunted her for so many nights. One that would not dissipate no matter how hard she wanted it to, that she could hardly deal with alone, before bed, much less fully conscious and in broad daylight, that screamed at her and yelled at her and, horrifyingly enough, whispered to her a truth that she never wanted to accept: '_Sonic doesn't love you._'

"I just…" She tried. Her voice cracked under the pressure of her painfully beating heart that seemed to be pumping something heavy into the back of her eyes. She blinked the pressure away in an attempt to keep it from coming forth.

"I want…" It was no use. Her conscious mind was screaming at her unconscious mind, and her happiness bellowed and contracted against the sea of chaotic emotions that slowly started to roar within her and swirl against the inside of her chest, and before she could fight to control all of the opposing factions inside of her, the pressure behind her eyes mutinously sneaked past her control, welling through her tear ducts and steaming across her muzzle.

"I just want Sonic to love me." She squeaked desperately. She hated this woman for making her face her feelings. She wanted to hide. She was embarrassed, ashamed, disgusted at herself. She was unhappy, she was sad, she wondered what about her made Sonic _hate _her so much. She understood Romani's prodding, but why would she prod so hard though!? It was none of her business! This was her fault! These emotions weren't hers! She was happy with Sonic! Sonic was happy with her! She _loved_ him! He _loved _her! There was no question!

And yet, the same, quiet voice overcame the loud shouting of her simple emotions with a single utterance. '_That's not true._'

Her small frame sputtered as more tears, heavier, hotter tears blew past the floodgates and started a steady pour across her face. She hugged herself self-consciously and lowered her head to try and hide away her ugly face as she scrunched up the brim of her muzzle and her brow, and all the while, she couldn't stand the weak squealing she made as her once-short coughs slowly turned into repeated cries. "I just want Sonic to love me! That's it!"

Somehow, in between her mental swears against herself for being such a spaz and reassurances that Sonic would never love her, Romani had approached Amy very closely, knelt just in front of her seat to the point that if she looked up, they would have been at eye-level. She felt the psychologist gently brush her bangs away from her eyes, and her voice came out very softly, like the gentle caress of a mother to their child.

"Amy… would it be okay if I hugged you?" She asked.

Without a single thought otherwise, Amy nodded her head and then threw her arms around Romani in embrace. She couldn't understand what about the woman was able to unlock her so quickly and easily, but the feeling of someone, warm and kind, holding her and caring about her simply left her in ruins. There were so many feelings exploding within her all at once, so many things that she couldn't understand, that simply having the support felt… nice.

* * *

"Are you feeling better?" Romani asked her, several minutes having passed since Amy fought back her tears. The psychologist had offered her a small bar of chocolate, which she graciously accepted and nibbled against quietly. Amy's mind still raced, though her thoughts no longer screamed, but rather buzzed in the back of her mind like a swarm of bees. She hoped none of them attempted to come and sting her again.

Amy nodded to the woman and bit from the bar again, appreciating the sweet flavor in spite of her emotions. There was a particular worry that floated around her head, but… she was afraid of asking. Still, it was something that had to be questioned, and if she was going to believe it from somebody, at the moment, it would have been Romani.

"Romani… am I crazy?" Amy's quavering voice questioned, still weak from the sobs she suffered. Romani simply shook her head and chuckled in a kind-hearted manner.

"No, Amy. You're not crazy." She reassured. "In fact, this kind of issue is very normal for somebody of your age, though Cream was right to bring you here anyway."

Romani glanced down at her papers again, her eyes surmising all of the notes she'd taken since Amy entered the room. "You see, at your age, there are many things that begin to change, and possibly the biggest change occurs with your emotions. Even for someone with very stoic feelings, the kinds of changed when they reach your age tend to be drastic, and from my understanding, you've liked Sonic for quite a while, haven't you?"

"Years." Amy supplied, eyes deep in consideration.

"I can only imagine that your affection has grown considerably lately." Romani hypothesized to the hedgehog. Amy glanced down at her boots, apparently intent with the way she continued to let them hang above the ground.

"I have felt like… I need to be closer to him lately." She admitted. "I've always thought he was amazing, but lately, I feel like it's not enough just to see him and watch him. I want to be around him too."

"I see… Amy?" Amy's head popped up upon being addressed again. "Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions?"

"Okay." Amy accepted, nodding her head.

"Thank you." Romani began to flip through a few papers on her clipboard before apparently settling on one. She scribbled a few things onto it, then looked up from the board back at Amy. "Okay Amy. Can you describe to me the feeling you get when you see Sonic come by? I mean, if he were, saying, shopping at the same market as you, how would you feel?"

Amy pondered upon the feeling curiously. "I would… probably feel really happy. Like, my chest would start to feel warm, and my tummy would get all bubbly, and I would suddenly really, really want to talk to him."

"And which of these feelings would you act upon first?" The woman inquired.

"Uh?"

"I mean, when you get these feelings, is there any particular order that you act? For instance, do you act on your bubbly tummy, or your warm chest, or do you simply talk to him first?" Romani expanded, using her pen idly as a gesture.

"Oh…" Amy's eyes drifted away in thought. "To be honest, I would probably want to fill the warmth in my chest by running up to him and give him a great big hug. I'd have to do it from behind though, or he'd see me coming and run away."

"…And that never seemed like a sign to you?" The woman questioned dryly.

"I-I thought he was just playing hard-to-get." She replied shyly, rubbing a sudden itch behind her head nervously. "I mean, I guess he told me to stop sometimes, but I thought he was playing really-hard-to-get…"

"We'll come back to that later." Romani suggested, a smirk developing despite herself as she wrote something down. "So, you tend to throw yourself at him, and that solves the warmth in your chest? What about the bubbling in your stomach?"

"Well…" Amy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Usually I… ask him to marry me."

"…Amy, you understand that you're twelve years old, right?" She asked, lowering her glasses to watch her unguarded.

"Almost thirteen!" Amy replied indignantly.

"Which is still not of the legal age in the United Federation." Romani responded, clearly cutting Amy down. "Though even if you're simply playing around, do you think about how that might make him feel?"

"How he might feel?" Amy wondered curiously. "I… I just thought that if he liked me, he would feel happy that I was willing to marry him."

"And what if he didn't like you the way you like him?"

"But-!" She flared again. This time, however, the flare died as abruptly as it began. "But… he told me he liked me."

"Under what context?" The psychologist asked. "Do you think he might have meant that he likes you as a friend? From what I understand, Sonic is a very friendly person."

"I…" It was true. Amy had never, or more accurately, hadn't _wanted_ to ever consider Sonic simply wanting her friendship alone. She hadn't imagined Sonic disliking her proposals. There had always been other considerations that she preferred, like the male hedgehog being too busy saving the world, or him being far too nervous in front of his friends to accept. And she knew that the law wouldn't have _actually_ let them marry even if he had said yes, but… she thought that if they agreed now, that he would wait for her until the day came that they could. But if Sonic didn't like her that way…

"He might have…" She confessed, seeming more downtrodden than ever before. "Sonic is a good friend. Even if he disliked everything about me, he would still like me as a friend and let me know it too."

Romani finished another quick line and then let her pen go still once again, but her eyes looked on with Amy sympathetically. "…Just one more question, okay?"

"How do you normally fulfill your desire to talk with Sonic?"

"Um…" The pink hedgehog's hands interlocked with each other as she tried to recall a conversation between the two of them. "If Sonic stays around long enough for us to talk, I normally tell him how great I think he is, and how much I l-love him, and if I have any rings, I ask him to take me on dates sometimes too." With all the previous actions and now this in perspective, Amy's ears dropped to the sides of her head. "Do you think… that was too forward of me?"

" A little bit." Romani minimized as much as she could. "And… has he ever accepted any of the dates you proposed?"

"A few times."

"…Really?" Amy felt her heart pick up with Romani's response. She wasn't sure what that response meant, but whatever it was, it was different. Still, the psychologist simply readjusted her glasses as a response and continued. "How did they go?"

"Oh, uh, we… never actually went on the dates." She explained meekly. "I offered to pay and everything, but something always comes up. He's really busy, saving the world, I mean." Upon thinking about it, Amy puffed her cheeks out in frustration. "Sometimes I think he's making it up though."

"Well, to be honest, from any other person, it would be highly suspect to me." Romani laughed. "But I think, all things considered, Sonic is probably the exception."

"You haven't heard some of his stories." Amy grinned, crossing her arms in faux-annoyance. "Genies sucking him into a book, Aliens from another planet. One time he tried to convince me he was a Werehog!"

"A… Werehog?" Romani questioned. "Wouldn't that be a-"

"A Human Pig, yeah!" Amy confirmed actively. "Can you believe it? He could at least get the wording right." Despite her complaints, Amy enjoyed the smiles on both of their faces as they teased the Blue Blur's absences. For some reason, simply laughing at him seemed to make her feel much, much better.

Eventually, they quieted just enough that Romani looked at her clipboard once again. With a smile still brightly lit upon her face, she glanced back at Amy and, for the first time, set down her board upon the table between them.

"Amy, I think I can both see your general problem and may be able to help you." She announced confidently. "But in order for this to work, you have to trust what I say and honestly, _honestly_, put an effort forth to make it work, okay?"

"Yeah! Okay!" Amy nodded excitedly. "I trust you Romani."

"Good. First of all, I don't think you actually love Sonic."

Well, she _had_ trusted Romani, in any event.

"H-how can you say that!?" Amy exclaimed, making the again-comparison of a crimson echidna enjoying the taste of hammer. "Of course I love Sonic! He's my everything!"

"And that, I believe, is your other problem." Romani continued, again unafraid of Amy's outburst. "Amy, your whole life seems to be dedicated to waking, eating, Sonic, and then sometimes sleeping. How long did it take for you to think of Sonic after you entered my room?"

Amy blushed. "I… was kind of already thinking of him before I came in."

"And how often does that go on each day?"

"Um… a lot?" Amy sat down once again, her cheeks feeling hotter than before. "I do dedicate my life around him, but… isn't that what people in love do?"

"In some cases." Romani stated. "But that isn't how love should _start_. Amy, can you tell me how you met Sonic?"

"He saved my life." She replied. "I'd always idolized him, but one day, my tarot cards told me I'd meet him in person if I went to Little Planet, and when I got there, Dr. Robotnik kidnapped me, but Sonic saved me!"

"And from that moment on, you pretty much dedicated your life to him?"

"If it wasn't for him, Robotnik would have turned me into a machine. I owe him my life." She rebutted.

"And it's a wonderful thing that he saved your life." Romani agreed. "But could it be that you're feeling admiration, not affection?"

"Admiration?" Amy wondered. "But that's the same thing, isn't it?"

Romani shook her head. "Amy, there are many intricacies that come with feeling pleasant towards somebody, and sometimes, they are very hard to understand, so we make mistakes. That said…" She continued, making sure Amy noted her caution. "It's possible that you might actually feel love for him. But as of right now, I feel that your attraction is for many wrong reasons."

"Then, if I'm loving him for the wrong reasons, how can I tell if I do love him for the right ones too?" She asked worriedly.

"Well… that's what we've set off to find out." Romani decided. "Amy, there are a couple of things I want you to try between this meeting and the next. The first is easy, but has some steps, and the second has only one step, but may be… challenging."

"The first thing I'm going to ask you to do is change how you act when you're around Sonic." Romani explained, lifting her hand demonstratively. "For starters, you should treat him the way you would treat your other close friends, like Cream. When you first see him, I want you to resist the urge to hug him or kiss him or grab or anything, okay? Talk _with_ him, instead of to him. He is a person, the same as you, and he might not like talking about just himself all of the time. In fact, don't be afraid to tell him about interesting things that _you've_ been up to, if he's willing to listen. Just be yourself, and remember that even in the closest of relationships, the friendship between them comes first."

"Secondly, as I already said, try to avoid… _touching_ him, or standing too closely. Give him a personal boundary of about one foot, give or take. Respect his personal space, okay? And if you absolutely cannot resist yourself, find a small reason to maybe shake hands, or a high five, or something. The key point here is to respect him as a person, giving him space. Nobody thinks it's fair to be touched in a way that makes them feel inappropriate, understand?"

"And finally, don't… be so overt with your feelings, especially about him. Love is supposed to be something mutual, you know? If you simply try to force marriage or children onto him, he might not agree or even want to agree with that. He has a choice in these matters, and again, it is one that I feel you should respect. If true romantic interest develops between the two of you, it will happen naturally, and trying to force it might not end so well. Do you understand?"

Where there was a dull roar in her mind now stood absorbing silence. It was as though her psychologist had become one of the women's magazines that she liked to read so often, only her advice… felt more solid. She wasn't completely sure how much she liked the idea of restraining her feelings, but everything Romani relayed to her made sense, even more sense than she admitted some of her own ideas made to her. She repeated the instructions to herself carefully, and slowly, she felt a realistic seed of a chance plant itself within her.

"Yeah." She responded. "Yeah, I understand. Don't talk about him to him so much, don't touch him so much, and don't… tell him I love him so much."

"Right." Romani appreciated. "If you treat yourself as though you're something more than a satellite to his presence, then he's much more likely to positively respond to you."

"And that leads well into my next request." The human's eyes shifted away nervously, as though even she wasn't positive of how safe her next request would be to ask to Amy Rose. "I'm… going to ask you to see Sonic only a few times per week."

"Wh-what?" Amy exclaimed, feeling unreasonably threatened by the mere statement. "Wh-what do you mean? You want me to spend _less_ time with my- w-with Sonic?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I want you to do." She confirmed bluntly, adjusting her glasses once again. "Every week, I want you to spend less than half of your days actively with Sonic. At this point in time, I'm worried that what may now be a harmless want to be around him may… develop into something worse, Amy. People in your position who don't care for themselves enough become dependent upon their object of interest, and it could turn into an obsession. What if you woke up one morning and you, say, didn't want Sonic to spend time with his female friends anymore?"

"Well…" Amy tried to defend.

"And what if you decided _all _of his friends were a threat? Or his family should he have any? What if you decided he was never to leave your sight?" Romani stopped her possibilities just short of genuinely scaring Amy. Her accusations didn't scare her merely because of the content, but rather, because of how… possible they seemed to her. She _did_ feel uncomfortable when he spoke to Blaze, and Rouge, and all of the other girls she'd seen him with. And… at times, when she was all alone, there were sometimes entertained thoughts of _making_ him marry her. She never took those thoughts seriously, but…

"I think you're a wonderful person, Amy." Romani sympathized, lowering her glasses and softening her voice. "But you don't seem to care about yourself nearly as much as you care about Sonic, and that isn't healthy. I want you to spend no more than three days actively spending time with or for Sonic. For the rest of the week, I want you to _do you_. Do whatever it may be that _Amy_ wants to do. Find a hobby that you enjoy, or spend time with _other_ friends. Pick up a job, _something_. If you happen to run into him, then keep the meeting brief and don't let it define the day. I feel that you have little to no confidence in yourself, and with such a loose foundation of self-worth, it's very easy to feel like you owe your entire existence to somebody else. But you are Amy Rose, and you are somebody worth standing on their own two feet for."

"Th-thank you." Amy sputtered. It hadn't taken her long to begin crying again, but these tears were so, _so_ much better. She wanted to cry and when she did, she felt happy for some odd reason. She felt _recognition_, and she felt as though she were receiving attention that she never knew she'd wanted. Amy shook her head and wiped the tears from her face, trying in vain to control her flighty feelings enough to thank the psychologist coherently. "Thank you, R-Romani!"

"It was my pleasure, Amy Rose." Romani smiled to the young hedgehog. "We'll pick up again next week, okay? Remember what we've talked about today and stick to it. Build up your self worth, and…"

She hesitated. "…I want you to at least entertain the notion that… perhaps you really don't love Sonic, alright?"

But Amy could do that. After all the help Romani had given her, and the advice that made things so clear for the hedgehog, Amy could do that much for the human woman. She could at least keep it in the back of her mind, and nodded in agreement. "I will, Romani. I promise, I'll do my best this week! I'll… I'll try to become a stronger person!"

"Then until next week, Amy." She waved in fare well. Before Amy could turn to leave, though, Romani suddenly offered her a small card. "Here. I do have a busy work week, but if anything emergent happens, please promise you'll leave me a message to respond to when I have the chance."

"Oh!" Amy accepted the card readily and tucked it away with her hammer. "Yes ma'am. Thank you. Thank you very much."

"Okay then. Goodbye Amy."

And as Amy pushed her way through the thick oaken door, she felt a new synergized energy that she couldn't place, but couldn't complain about either. She was now determined, and now, she knew the steps she had to take. She would find out, once and for all, whether or not she and Sonic could fulfill her childhood dreams together. No matter how long it took, she would stand tall on her own, and she would show Sonic what she was really worth, and then _she_ would be the one deciding to share her love with him or not!

As she watched the floor drift by with each step, a small tail of a thought followed the first quickly.

'_I hope_.'


	3. Chapter 2 -- Facing the Problem

She had spent the entire weekend wondering how she was going to go about starting her new life. Romani had very clearly emphasized that she should think for herself, and that much was easy enough. Amy had always been thinking for herself. She had plenty of not-Sonic-related interests, like working out, and playing with Cream and Big, and sometimes, hitting the mall and doing some window-shopping never hurt either. The problem was, those were only things that interested her _after_ she'd been shunted by Sonic that day, otherwise, she wasn't normally able to get him out of mind. It was just as the psychologist had said.

_"__Why not just _try_ to have fun at least?" _Cream had suggested to her after they shared a lengthy discussion surrounding her 'problem'. But that was easier said than done, she realized. Even as she paced slowly across the grassy fields of the Windy Valley, and even as the titular gusts breezed past her quills pleasantly and cooled her with their gentle scent of a wonderful, startlingly tepid summer day, she couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. Not completely. No matter how much she tried to convince herself to simply take in the beautiful scenery and take her mind off of Sonic, the blue hero refused to stop dashing through her thoughts and carrying with him, miraculously enough, her heavy heart. It was no use.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled it with defeat. If she had to spend four days out of her week this way, suffering without the love of her life even being allowed to involve himself in it, then she wasn't sure if she could handle it. She wanted, very, very badly, to simply scour the countryside for the wonderful speeding hedgehog and make him hers for the rest of their joined days on the planet—

"Ready?"

Amy froze suddenly. That voice… it was familiar. Male, definitely, but younger, as though nature had decided Cream needed a vocal counterpart. She could have sworn that…

"Go Sonic!" The voice exclaimed from a distance. The sound carried far with the wind, she could tell, but it was clear to her now. That voice was Tails', she was positive! And that name! There could only be one name that sounded that sweet and glorious to her ears! That was the name of her future husband-to-be! Amy became so overcome with giddiness that she twisted around, listened once more for the oddly feminine, "You're doing great Sonic!", and dashed off. Her feet practically hurdled themselves over a small hill, and as she reached its top, the vantage point made everything clear to her.

The two were settled on a long, empty strip of the valley, nestled between two ranges of hills that stretched on beyond where she could see. In the bright daylight, the strip had a dark, worn gray-brown colour in contrast to the bright greens of the grass and the jubilant baby blue of the sky. Even with these contrasting colours, however, Amy could spot the two easily. A smaller figure, marigold fur that she would never embarrass the poor fox by pointing out to him, and two idling tails swaying as he entered information into a device, and there. Standing tall, handsome, _magnificent_ in the radiance of his own center-of-the-universe kind of way, stood the cobalt hedgehog himself, long spines shaking in the air as he stretched himself, waiting for his friend to prompt him. She'd become so accustomed to his figure that even from afar, she could see, _feel_, his emerald pupils locked hard and coolly in his perfect eyes, his resting demeanor, as though nothing in the world could mean more to him than the next step. The utter and sheer brilliance that surrounded him, he was perfect, he was everything! She had to get closer! She had to talk to him and to see him and to be near him-!

"SOOONIIIIIC!" She let free her rousing emotions, springing from the top of her hill with all of her force and flying through the air, landing on the steep incline between them and sprinting her way towards the duo. She ran so quickly, and in such a blind dash, that her vision tunneled, until all she could see was the vague shape of his royally blue figure ahead of her. Her target was locked. She had the element of surprise. No matter how fast her lovely love was, she had already accounted his shock rebound and his ability to run in the opposite direction. She would have him before he could manage a successful run, and then she could wrap herself around him and immerse herself in the amazing-

'_Stop._'

Amy suddenly buried her feet into the ground as best as she could to kill her inertia. The soles of her boots kicked up quite a bit of topsoil before the rest of her body slowed just enough, but true to their trusty capabilities, she halted. Everything about her felt halted. Her heart rate skidded to a slow pulse as her trembling urges quietly silenced. Even her vision slowly came down from its sudden Sonic-high, until, in her calmer state, she was able to gather a clearer, less desperately vying image.

Sonic seemed terrified by her sudden appearance and was frozen in place by fear, both of his hands jetted up to protect himself from what he thought was the inevitable and bearing his teeth. He was bracing himself, she realized. By his side, the small fox didn't seem much better, hiding behind his small machine tablet as both of his tails stood on end.

Amy glanced down at herself, facing her palms so that she could see them herself. They were frightened by _her_. Amy's appearance itself, though no doubt coupled by her sudden intrusion, was enough to scare the two bravest heroes on the planet into momentary shock. Especially _Sonic_. Even as he recovered from the brief spell, his foot took a half step back as he cautiously analyzed her still form. She was a threat to him. She had never seen the hedgehog fear anything short of _physically manifested gods_ as much as he'd flinched when she appeared.

That settled it. Her moment of clarity made it clear to her, more than even her emotionally strenuous meeting the day prior. She was _scaring_ Sonic, when she herself had sworn that she would never let anything harm him. Even if he didn't seriously believe that she could hurt him, that wasn't important. Her improvement was. She had to change things, right then and there. She had to take that first step, to show to him that she _wasn't_ a psychopath that desperately clung to his fibers as though he were a life support system.

….But how was she supposed to do it again? Even with her resolve, the urge to involve herself with his aura became more and more tempting. His full, luscious quills… that dreamy, handsome expression… She shook herself rid of these thoughts. That was her chest. The warmth in her chest that only Sonic could fill. It was one of those feelings that she had to control, no matter what her chest wanted her to do. What was she supposed to do? She had to think back, and think hard, to overcome the clouds that rose over her head. When she wanted to hug him, she was supposed to… talk. Just, talk. Sonic was a friend. Sonic _is_ a friend. Just treat him… like Cream.

"Hiya Cream! How's Cheese doing!?" She blurted out under pressure. Her cheeks lit aflame and her hands flew to her lips. Treat him _like_ Cream! _Like_ Cream! She didn't want to look, but she could feel Sonic's confused expression watch her as though she were a ticking time bomb, ready to explode.

"I-I mean, hi! Sonic." She defused quickly, ushering in the most forced smile she'd ever given and changing her itchy fingers into a couple of waves. Her face hurt from trying to hide her embarrassment, but, very subtly, she noticed the hero's posture shifted. His confused expression continued, but his feet slid into a more firm stance. Amy's eyes lit up. _Progress_. "H-how's it… going?"

"Amy…" He mumbled wearily. His arms crossed over his chest defensively. "Everything's… fine."

The silence between the three of them felt awkward to her, but she admitted that his presence itself was already an improvement. It was working. Her mind raced to keep it alive and well.

"S-so what are you two doing out here?" She asked, trying hard to keep her smile up. It, very gradually, became easier to do, though she couldn't help but feel like her brow was scrunched in concentration. She didn't dare break face to check.

"Uh…" Sonic glanced away and at Tails, whom looked back up to his friend and shrugged. Lowering his eyelids, he seemed to put on a more casual air as his hands rested upon his hips. "Tails was timing me as I ran across this valley."

Amy's heart flipped. "Really!?" She cried excitedly, hopping up on one foot. Her exclamation made the two friends flinch heavily, and this reaction made Amy catch herself. '_He's just a person. Just a person._' She reminded herself repeatedly. Lowering her arms and letting herself slow down internally once again, she settled on a much softer smile and attempted to change her tone to that of what she'd seen Madam Vanilla use whenever she complimented Cream.

"That's… That sounds like fun." She nodded her head a little forcefully, but from what she could tell, it sold to them. She tilted her head towards Tails, figuring him to be the time keeper, and upheld her passive smile. "A-and, how fast has- I mean, wh-wha-what's his record?"

"Oh, um…" Tails' flustered upon being addressed amidst the unusual tension, but he glanced down at his tablet anyways and seemed to be flipping through the virtual pages. "The valley here is only four kilometers and sixteen meters long, so Sonic's best run was… six seconds and fourteen milliseconds."

"W-wow!" Amy exclaimed. She fought off the urge much more easily that time. It wasn't so hard, once she got the hang of it. It was like suppressing a hiccup when in the midst of a restaurant. Still, her fingers began to tingle again, impatient with her not-grappling-blue approach to dealing with Sonic, so she redirected the hasty digits into a pair of thumbs that she raised towards the speedy hedgehog. "That's… great Sonic! Really… neat!"

Neat. _Neat._

"Well, thanks." Sonic accepted. "I could probably do better if there weren't so many hills though."

"You should have seen him over at Emerald Hills." Tails reminisced with a short chuckle. "He ran the whole zone in under a minute!"

"Fifty-five seconds is hardly 'under a minute' Tails." The hedgehog countered, sticking his tongue out at the younger friend. The fox stuck his tongue back out at the hedgehog harder, puffing his cheeks out, and this earned a mock-insulted expression from the older friend, whom poked his thumbs into his ears and blew a raspberry right into the fox's face.

Amy wanted to genuinely enjoy the heartwarming moment shared between the two, whom may as well have been brothers for how dorkish their appearance was to her. But because of how much she enjoyed their playful display, she began to feel a warm bubbling in her tummy.

Sonic was such a good role model, and an even better brother. She saw how close Tails and he were, and how easily they played with each other, and it stirred something within her. Sonic was spectacular, and awe-inspiring. He made the people around him better, not just _feel _better, but _actually_ better, just by being around them. He was so perfect that Amy just… wanted him…

She shook her head. That, too, was bad. No matter how much she may have wanted him, and no matter how perfect he was, Romani was right. _Sonic was not hers_. Despite how much she may have wanted to cling to him, and how much she _really_ wanted to ask him how long he was planning before he'd show her a ring, she knew… she knew deep down that that wasn't right. Sonic was… like a fragile plant, she figured, with the most gorgeous bloom she'd ever seen. But she knew that if she tried to pull the plant out, the more she pulled at it, the less likely it was to stay gorgeous. She had to let it spread, on its own, and if it happened to flower where she wanted it, then that would be that.

She forced herself to release another breath. She still felt the bubbles rage within her, but she no longer felt controlled by them. She held the reigns, and she was darned if she would let herself lose track of them, after coming this far.

"So what are you doing out this far?" Tails asked.

"Huh!?" Amy felt her own insulated world pop as she was brought back to the material plane. Tails was looking up to her, if not eagerly, then at least with less fear and exasperation than she'd ever seen before. Even Sonic seemed more at ease. He, along with Tails, watched her as she watched them watch her curiously.

"Oh." She blinked again, remembering her social skills clumsily. "I was just… wandering about." She answered truthfully. She decided that, as long as she didn't word it the way it was obviously intended, she could tell them the whole truth without looking depraved in every way, like she was almost sure she was. "I was bored today, so I thought I would just take a walk and see what was going on."

"And you just happened to bump into us, huh?" Sonic smirked, his cocky teeth showing beneath his muzzle as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger.

"Hey! That's what happened!" Amy felt herself pout. "I actually _wasn't_ following you today!"

She hadn't meant to let that slip, and when she did, she felt her entire face go red. She felt the world and the universe and the sky and the air fall apart all around her, like shattering glass or an unglued puzzle, tinkering into shards and scattering at her feet.

'_That's the end._' She thought to herself manically. '_ I messed up. I failed. I let Sonic know and now he knows and he knows and he… knows! He knows I'm trying to be cool and he knows I saw a psychologist and he knows I'm crazy and he'll run away and I've ruined everything!'_

"Really?" She wanted to cry. Her cheeks and ears and eyes all felt hot and sweltered up very quickly, and the pressure behind her eyes began to build up again. She had been doing so well, and Sonic hadn't hated her and they were _talking_ and he _wasn't_ running—

"That's a surprise. I didn't think you _took_ vacations Amy." He teased, letting his grin grow wider. "Well hey. As long as you're not following me, you can stick around and watch while I go for five seconds this time."

"Wh-what?" All at once, Amy's entire world view went into whiplash. She felt like, if her life were a car that had been travelling at hundreds of miles per hour, then her emotions were the cheap knick-knacks that people put on their dashboards as the vehicle came to a complete and utter stop, flinging all across the front and smashing against the fiberglass windshield. "W-watch?"

"Try to stand at an approximately forty-five degree angle from him." Tails suggested helpfully. "His sonic boom tends to demolish everything standing behind him, as we found out the hard way with all my equipment last time."

"Heh, should'a known. It's in the name, buddy!" The hedgehog retorted, giving him a thumbs up and winking.

Tails shook his head, though he smiled underneath it all, and then beckoned Amy to stand next to him. "Over here is safe Amy."

"You're letting me… watch?" She sputtered. Her brain was flat-lining on her and it was all she could do to keep her jaw from falling off.

"Try not to blink."

And all of a sudden, Amy knew the true face of Paradise, and Heaven, and Valhalla and all of the divine perfections in the world as though they'd all become jealous of what happened and rained down upon her at once.

Sonic _smiled._

_At her._

Not to anyone else. Not to any event. Nobody had told any jokes, nor had he just performed some heroic feat, nor had she been saved. Eggman was not swearing vengeance on them, the world had not just been re-pieced together, _nothing_. They were in casual conversation. She was speaking to him. _With _him. And _he smiled at her. Genuinely. _

She was speechless. She was thoughtless. It took several moments for her legs to unconsciously drag her next to the young fox, and she was hardly paying attention as he counted down the hedgehog's timer. Nothing could stimulate her, no event nor happenstance was strong enough to bring her down from where she'd flown. She was happy with where she was, and she didn't want to come down, no matter what—

"High five Amy!"

She blinked. What. High five, what? Sonic stood just in front of her, his hand raised in the air, and there was another _immaculate_ smile plastered across his face. But the expression was curious. What was he doing? He said 'high five', and she knew what a high five was, but the two concepts seemed mutually exclusive, Sonic and actually _wanting_ physical interaction with her. She couldn't have been in reality, or otherwise she was misunderstanding _something_.

"Why?" She asked blankly.

"You didn't see me? I just went five and fifteen milliseconds!" He exclaimed proudly. "Not that I don't blame you. Told you not to blink."

She still didn't understand. Her eyes turned to Tails, looking for some kind of resolution. The fox didn't seem to comprehend what it was she was silently asking of him, but after a moment, his mind registered the shock, and so he mimicked the motion of his hands clapping together, all the while looking up at Sonic as well. And so she looked back up to him. And she looked at his upheld hand.

And then she looked down at hers. And then she gingerly touched her palm against his.

"Alright!" He cheered, hopping back and spinning in a small circle before jumping back to his feet. "Your five needs some work, but it's fine! Tails!"

"Yeah Sonic?"

"Rev up the Tornado II. These two fast bad boys—" He began, tapping each foot against the ground demonstratively. "—Want to rip up Radical Highway next! I'm gonna beat Shadow's record next!"

"Whatever you say, Sonic." His younger brother-surrogate laughed. "Well, let's get going then. See you later Amy!"

"Later Ames!" Sonic waved quickly as he followed the two-tailed fox.

"B-bye…" She mumbled, waving her hand weakly as they packed away their few belongings into the Tornado II, which parked itself not too far away.

No. She wanted to say _bye_. This was her first chance and she wanted to _say bye!_ With her determination flaring up within her, she began jogging after them, as the plane began to roll off.

"Hey! Bye guys!" She shouted over the roar of the Tornado II beginning to heat up. She hopped and waved her hands over her head energetically, catching the blue hero's attention. "Hey! If you beat it, tell Shadow that I'm gonna beat it next, okay!?"

"You got it!" Sonic shouted back, cupping his mouth to be heard over the roar. The bi-plane began to shudder, and as it drove to catch flight underneath it's wings, the hedgehog winked at Amy and gave her a big thumbs up, before the two of them lifted up and out of sight, far into the steadily tinting-navy sky.

And she could swear, she felt herself flying up with them, soaring past the clouds and through the atmosphere. It'd been awkward, silent, casual, and weirder than all else, but for the life of her, she couldn't have imagined it going any better.

She was sure, _positive_, that Sonic had just officially treated her like a friend. They had just _talked_, and she hadn't once mentioned marriage, and for the last few seconds, she hadn't even _thought_ of jumping against him and carrying his children. It was a slow start. A _very_ slow start, she realized. But… it was a start. She'd taken the right steps in the right directions. And for the first time in a long time, Sonic wasn't afraid of her.

And she wasn't afraid of herself.


End file.
